21WIRE’s Patrick Henningsen appeared LIVE on RT’s In The Now to discuss how the mainstream media’s coverage was missing crucial points in the wake of the Senate’s release of a redacted, executive summary of the full report.

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In January 2015, 21WIRE reported on GOP Plans to ‘Return’ Torture Documents to CIA (for shredding) led by Richard Burr, North Carolina’s pro-torture Senator, who is now openly abusing the powers of his office to hide evidence from public view. Burr asserted that these ‘secretive’ torture documents somehow ‘belong’ to the CIA, ignoring the fact they were paid for, and therefore, are the property of the American People.

A federal judge has now ruled Congress still has control of this information, and the authority to keep it ‘secret’ and exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Score another lynchpin in Washington’s phony War on Terror.

All of this grand charade has left us wondering whether anything incriminating in this report will ever really be released to the public…

CIA torture report won’t be released to public, judge rules

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Senate’s nearly 7,000-page report on the CIA’s torture practices during interrogations in the wake of 9/11 will not be made public, marking a setback for civil liberties advocates.

So far, Senate leaders have only released the 480-page executive summary of the so-called torture report, which revealed numerous gruesome details about the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation practices. The fate of the full report has been up in the air, however, since Republicans took control of the Senate during the most recent midterm elections.

Washington, DC US District Judge James E. Boasberg, in his 26-page decision, said the complete report compiled by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the related “Panetta review,” are exempt from the dictates of the Freedom Information Act. He said the Senate Committee report remains under congressional control and Congress made sure to exempt itself from FOIA requests.

“Congress has undoubted authority to keep its records secret, authority rooted in the Constitution, longstanding practice, and current congressional rules,” Boasberg stated.

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